Test post:
Posting from the iPhone on the EDGE network.
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June 30, 2007
Pinging:
Not much posting these last few days. Not because I was in a rut this time, but my ISP shut down, opened up and again shut down access to Moveable Type because of comment bots.
My iPhone:
I didn't camp out or wait in line. Once the madness died down, I just walked into the Apple Store in Hingham, strolled up to the counter and bought an iPhone. They seem to have plenty.
First impressions: The interface is simple and easy to use. For some, it may be too simple, especially if, like me, you're used to right-clicking into properties and tweaking everything. There's not a lot of that available. But it's a phone, after all, not a computer.
The display and touch-screen are downright amazing. Having fat fingers, I was concerned that the keyboard would be hard to use, but not so. One day in, I can type about half as fast as I can on a Blackberry (I couldn't type at all on the small Treo keyboard). Punctuation is a little quirky but that may be because I'm used to the auto-punctuation on the Blackberry.
I was an existing AT&T / Cingular account holder so activation through iTunes was quick and easy. They just switched my number from my old phone to the iPhone.
The slowness of the EDGE network that I had heard about didn't seem to be a big issue. I experimented a little with web browsing and, although not as fast as wi-fi, it was better than merely useable. The ability to zoom into web pages is critical and I found that most pages were easy to read. Selecting links in lists was problematic (fat fingers again) but in-line links are easier. Some sites (the Herald, for instance) automatically detect that you're using a mobile device and serve up a simple, one column page. That's fine if you're using a Blackberry or other mobile browser but with the iPhone's full-browser capabilities, you don't get full content.
I haven't explored all the features yet, but despite expecting to be disappointed (see iHype), first impressions are overwhelming positive.
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June 29, 2007
iLine:
June 27, 2007
Dont try to dig what we all s-s-say:
There's a very strange article in the Times this morning on the political attitudes of young people. It starts with the headline: New Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left.
So far, so good. Youthful idealism, but not exactly breaking news.
By the numbers, it turns out that young people are less conservative than the average American and more liberal than the average American. But just when you begin to think this means something, the breakdown is offered: 28 percent describe themselves as liberal and 27 percent describe themselves as conservative.
A one point difference. And both groups were outnumbered by people who didn't know where they stood.
And get this:
...The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.
And this on who could be president:
...[T]hey said that they did not believe Americans would elect someone who had used cocaine or someone who was a Mormon.
A weird juxtaposition.
A better headline for this story might have been, New Poll Finds That Young Americans are Ill-Informed and All Over The Map Politically. Just like the rest of us, but in their own way.
June 26, 2007
Time is money:
The iPhone service plan pricing has been announced, if your interested. Not as bad as I thought.
Suitcases full of money:
In this week's New Yorker, George Packer writes about Michael Bloomberg who, as the fourth richest businessman in the country, decided to get into politics.
...But unlike the financial titans of the late nineteenth century, who made it a business practice to buy mayors (and governors and legislators), Bloomberg instead bought the mayoralty, spending almost a hundred and sixty million dollars of his own money on his two winning campaigns. Then, unlike the robber barons, who corrupted public officeholders to serve private or party interests, the Bloomberg administration has generally offered a model of nonpartisan good government...
They say we get the politicians we deserve but New York seems to have lucked out. And, as Packer notes, despite his money, there are lots of reasons why Bloomberg would have trouble as a presidential candidate. An interesting possibility, nonetheless.
Obsolescence:
I have a box of floppy disks somewhere in the basement. I saved them because, well you never know, someday you may need that old data. The problem is, being a Mac user, I don't have a way to read them anymore. Apple stopped supplying disc readers years ago. Many Windows laptops don't have floppy drives and someday soon, most desktops won't either. These things kind of sneak up on you, hence the dusty box in the basement.
It's a good thing I now archive data on CD's. Well, maybe not.
Cheapo:
The AMA has found the enemy and it is... Wal-Mart clinics? Paul Levy cogitates the dissonance.
Ethanol cookies:
Instead of eating corn, we can now apparently use it to make ethanol and then eat the byproducts.
On background:
It's interesting to note that Boston.com is now selling it's background wallpaper to advertisers. Today's yellow Toyota backdrop isn't bad. Nice and perky, actually.
But I'm afraid of what could come next.
Radical surgery:
It's hard to know who the good guys are and who bad guys are when it comes to drug traffickers and the Mexican federal police. Apparently the problem was so bad that President Calderon decided to fire all the police chiefs.
Airflow:
With a planned grant-supported research center, Massachusetts hopes to be a leader in wind energy technology.
...By 2010, the test center is projected to generate about $82,000 in net income, state officials said. But its primary economic benefit will be as a magnet to attract wind turbine design and manufacturing companies to Massachusetts.
So they can, presumably, ship their designs to states that are more wind-farm friendly than ours.
The price of pants:
The guy who sued his dry-cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants may have slightly overreached. The court has ruled for the dry-cleaners who, unfortunately, paid out over $100,000 in legal fees defending themselves. Whether they are reimbursed hinges on whether the suit could be considered frivolous.
That will be a tough one.
Of course there will be an appeal. The Chung family, which owns the dry-cleaner, has been financially devastated and another round in court, even with reimbursement for the first, won't make things better. You may want to help them out.
June 25, 2007
Expanding power:
Rupert Murdoch may own a lot of newspapers but he doesn't' own the New York Times, at least not yet.
Buzz machine:
After big stories in the Washington Post and New York Times last week, it seems iPhone mania is calming down. Or maybe not.
June 19, 2007
On the books:
Is there a downside to Bill Weld registering as a lobbyist? He's waiting until he approaches the 50 hours in a 6 month period limit that would require him to do so, so maybe he thinks there is.
Ounce of prevention:
Mosquito season is back. Here are some tips to keep them from biting.
The decade after:
An interesting though experiment from Scientific American: What would happen if humans disappeared? Although some items -- like stainless steel pots or plastic toys -- would hang in for hundreds of years, it wouldn't take long before roads and cities started deteriorating. In a place like New York, water underground would start the ball rolling.
“Many of the buildings in Manhattan are anchored to bedrock. But even if they have steel beam foundations, these structures were not designed to be waterlogged all the time. So eventually buildings would start to topple and fall. And we’re bound to have some more hurricanes hitting the East Coast as climate change gives us more extreme weather. When a building would fall, it would take down a couple of others as it went, creating a clearing. Into those clearings would blow seeds from plants, and those seeds would establish themselves in the cracks in the pavement. They would already be rooting in leaf litter anyhow, but the addition of lime from powdered concrete would create a less acidic environment for various species. A city would start to develop its own little ecosystem."
And it wouldn't include Starbucks.
June 18, 2007
Turning point in the race?
For a non-candidate, Fred Thompson is getting a lot of ink this morning. Here, here and here. And he's starting to make a strong showing in polls. (Obama, on the other hand is slipping back)
Qubit:
Scientists have made some slight advances in the quest to build quantum computers.
Gilligan's Island:
Wood bicycles? I'm not sure this is progress. What's next, a radio receiver made from coconuts?
June 17, 2007
Another world:
As the 2008 Olympics approach, China is looking for hostesses for the medal ceremonies. The criteria:
...[W]omen of uniform height with neat bottoms and minus body art and ear studs. Glossy skin was another asset.
“Bone structure and height should be uniform,” .... “For example, we don't want any wide bottoms.”
These are the kinds of things that remind you just how different our cultures are. I would guess that people who recruit models for trade shows in the US use the same criteria but wouldn't dare admit it.
Through the looking glass:
The NY Times Magazine has photo slide show of people and their avatars. Very interesting.
June 16, 2007
In and out of traffic:
A parking dispute, D-list'er Kathy Griffin, paparazzi and a shooting all come together in Hollywood. Also, freeway shootings are coming... back. (Via the LA Times road rage blog)
Wind wars:
Jay Fitz writes that the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is claiming that Cape Wind is a threat to the national missile defense system, the implication being that the windmills could lead to the destruction of America, the annihilation of everything we hold dear.
But a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency says no, it's really not a problem.
Who to believe?
Shiny, happy candidate:
On message. Hair in place. Is Romney a Stepford candidate? A Times article tries to look beyond the polished veneer.
June 15, 2007
Enemy of my enemy:
Matt Amorello has endorsed Rudy Giuliani. You can't make this stuff up. (Via Hub Politics)
Politics and real estate:
John Keith reports that the private school that was at the heart of the political squabble over the Seaport development plan is now off the table.
In a vacuum:
A Christian Science Monitor article suggests that the poll numbers underestimate Romney 's organization, fund-raising and advertising potential.
And on a completely unrelated topic, there's also a CSM story on the computer problems at the Space Station.
Forget HAL. Apparently they're using 386s. I have an old Dell Pentium that they can have. I'll trade it for a jar of Tang.
Forgone conclusion:
Jay just can't contain his excitement over the gay marriage vote. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Boston's proud history of piracy:
The only thing a pirate hates more than the law is other pirates. Great article in The Dig on Roxbury / Mattapan underground radio.
On the record:
Did Harry Reid call Gen. Pace "incompetent"? People listening in on the call can't agree, but apparently there's a tape.
Slimming down:
A new diet drug has some unfortunate side effects. But, still, it's selling out.
Maybe a better way to lose weight is through blogging.
Mixing it up:
What could be worse than an ice cream truck calliope? How about the Rumbler?
This Times story explains and demonstrates the menu options available to NYPD officers in choosing siren sounds.
June 14, 2007
No comment:
I've wanted to return to open comments here and I haven't found an easy way to do it. The problem is all the old comment spam. I have over 82,000 comments on open posts in the archives, most of it spam. My provider changed the permissions on my comment program because, they claimed, it was overwhelming the system. After a while I changed them back, but within a minute, dozens of new spam comments appeared.
I know there are ways to screen for junk, but that keeps the spam comment from being posted, not from being processed, stored and eventually deleted by the blogging software, all of which strain system resources.
Hoping that newer versions of Movable Type might help, I went from ver 3.2 to 4 Beta. That was a disaster (and stressful to boot!) So back to 3.2 and then to 3.5 which, if you can see this, is working.
But there's nothing helpful in the upgrades or the documentation. I haven't given up, though. I'm deleting old comments 500 at a time which takes some time. With 82,800 to go I estimate I'll have it done by Christmas.
Apart from switching to Wordpress, any suggestions?
UPDATE: I give up. Since I turned comments on the spam has been coming faster than I could delete it. Back to no comments.
Vote count:
Joan Vennochi thought the results of the Constitutional Convention on gay marriage would be a referendum on Patrick's power and reputation. Right now it's looking pretty intact.
Customer service:
There's an interesting article in Business Week on Bloomberg and his tenure as the businessman mayor.
Sellendipity:
Mats Tolander is photoblogging EBay Live 2007 at the BCEC.
Blogging basics:
Jim Sullivan is an accomplished music writer and now a prodigious blogger (and a fellow member of the Boston Blog Network.) I'm a big fan.
But on the blogging front, I have to offer a little constructive criticism. Apart from the lack of permalinks and the confusing date format (not a big deal if you use the RSS feed) the biggie is: no links!
Take this entry on The Woggles. It would have been great to be able to check out the band's website or MySpace page, and there are song clips that the uninitiated can listen to.
Across the board:
Another day, another poll. I'll avoid the candidates' rankings and cut to a more interesting set of numbers: Favorables/Unfavorables for Bush and for Congress: 29/66 and 23/64 respectively. As NBC puts it, "America is grumpy."
Exclusivity:
So, Romney has set up a campaign Faith and Values Steering Committee. In addition to forgetting to include any Jews on the committee, Headline Junkie notes that there are...
No Muslims, either, for that matter. Or Mormons. Or Buddhists. Obviously, a more accurate name for this group would be the "Pandering to Evangelical Christians (and Token Catholics)" Steering Committee.
Hmmm. Pretty harsh. I'm not sure it's possible to know, from a list of names, which religions are represented. But if he's right, that' s pretty bad.
Visualization:
There's been quite a bit of study into the physical dynamics leading to the collapse of the World Trade towers. A recently released Purdue University computer animation takes a visual approach. (The link in the story doesn't work -- this one does.)
A thousand words:
The caption under this photo reads:
Representative Paul Kujawski displayed the mail he has received as he weighed a proposed ban on gay marriage.
I didn't realize that blue paper was so popular with voters in Worcester County. Not a big deal, but a curiosity. Here's the full Globe story.
Drive time:
It wasn't that Barnicle himself was all that bad, but throw in co-hosts Dan Shaughnessy and Hank Morse and it was simply unlistenable. According to Jesse Noyes, WTKK managers recognized this and pushed Barnicle to take on a new crew. To his credit he stuck by his friends and walked.
On deck are Michael Graham or Eagan and Braude. Looks like NPR in the mornings from now on. Unless of course, WTKK brings in the newly available Chris Lydon to replace Barnicle.
June 13, 2007
Watch your watch and wallet:
It was bad enough when we thought the President of the United States could be relieved of his wristwatch by a pickpocket. Now, it turns out, he preemptively removed it and put it in his pocket before wading into the crowd, causing Albanians to complain that he didn't trust them.
I guess when you hang around with politicians all the time, you develop these habits.
Hear music:
I'm not in favor of throwing out the baby with the bath-water when it comes to ice cream truck PA systems. It's not the music that should be banned but the off-key repetitive ear-splitting tinny tunes. Throw in the doppler effect and it can cause your head to explode. If there are things that can make Britney Spears sound in tune, there has to be a way to fix this problem.
Here's one solution: make all the ice cream trucks get an iPod and play Ride of the Valkyries or maybe James Brown (I Got You (I Feel Good)?) or, if you haven't had enough of it in Starbucks, Paul McCartney's new album. That won't be irritating.
By the numbers:
A Quinnipiac poll released today has some interesting findings. It's good news for Hillary Clinton (but not so good for Romney.) But among registered voters, a CBS News / NYT poll (scroll down) finds that Clinton's unfavorable rating is also pretty high --and getting higher over time. But then again, an LA Times / Bloomberg poll gives Hillary a solid lead.
What does it all mean? Probably nothing. Forget the polls, watch the markets.
How can we miss you if you won't go away?
Bill Weld, acting as a corporate lawyer and private interest advocate, is trying to persuade lawmakers that the time is right to sell the Turnpike and the Lottery. Thanks, but no thanks.
Actually, as far as the Lottery goes, with the Wampanoag's ready to open a casino, maybe the time is right for the state to cash in, sell the Lottery, and get out of the gambling business. (Although there is still the issue that Steve Bailey raised.)
But the Turnpike? It was built with tax dollars, not to be a profit center but for transportation and development. If this is what building a public transportation infrastructure is about, why not put tolls on all state highways and then sell them to the highest bidder?
We should be moving in the opposite direction, phasing out Turnpike tolls altogether, not trying to find ways to make even more money from them.
Gino's blog:
According to Casey Ross, the old question of whether bloggers are journalists came up yesterday when, at a hearing on a proposed state shield law for journalists, State Rep Eugene O’Flaherty threatened to write the hearing up on his blog, thus becoming a reporter.
While O’Flaherty considers jumping from state employee to journalist, Howie looks at a few who have moved in the other direction. After focusing his muckraking skills on a bunch of ex-Herald reporters, he can't resist taking a shot at the real enemy, those "brandy Alexander-swilling," "bow-tied bumkissers from Morrissey Boulevard."
Now was that necessary?
Exhale:
Despite resistant TB infected passengers, there's really no evidence that you're more likely to get a respiratory infection in an airplane than while on the ground.
But to be on the safe side, pick an aisle seat.
June 12, 2007
The crystal ball:
Hillary Clinton is up 15 points. It must be the makeup.
I'll stick to my prediction of Clinton vs Romney in the general election. The winner? I'm not ready for that prediction, yet.
Bonjour:
As Walt Mossberg has noted about iTunes for Windows, but nobody so far writing about Safari for Windows has noticed, these Apple for Windows programs have a subversive side, installing Bonjour, an Apple networking system that overlays Windows networking.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact it might turn out to be a very good thing if it ends making home networking easier than it currently is using the notoriously difficult Microsoft network setup.
Blacked out:
In an exclusive, David Chase speaks to the New Jersey Star Ledger about -- The Ending.
Try it, you'll like it:
People either love or hate the Apple web browser, Safari. I'm among the former and use it almost exclusively, at least when I'm on a Mac. It's fast, uncluttered, displays text beautifully and, of course, offers tabbed browsing.
Until now it's only been available on the Mac but that changed yesterday. Today there's a Windows version, available for free download.
UPDATE: One day and the program has apparently been hacked. I guess Apple should have expected this sort of thing when developing for Windows. You should still download and check it out, though.
Displayability:
Whole Foods has invaded the UK. Apart from the "overly perky American check-out assistants", it appears that the Brits generally like the concept, despite the one commenter who described the experience as...
...a frenzy of old fashioned consumerism as hundreds of deluded middle class people with more money than sense charge around the shop hiding their self-indulgence under a tawdry cloak of green. This is Bluewater for the granola-crunching and latte-supping classes. Sociologically fascinating but morally vacant.
Well, there's one in every crowd.
High fidelity:
Before computers and the internet, most of us technology geeks were into stereo gear. Instead of hard drives and RAM, we obsessed over cartridges, equalizers and speakers. Tech Hi-Fi was like a candy store in those days, sort of like the Apple store of the 1970s.
At some point, Tweeter took over and became the dominant hi-fi and electronics store in the area. Business was good for a while, but things changed and electronics became a commodity more easily purchased at Best Buy or Circuit City. So now that Tweeter has declared bankruptcy, it looks like the specialty electronics store has gone the way of the turntable.
UPDATE: Steven Syre looks into what went wrong with Tweeter's plan.
June 11, 2007
Hitting the jackpot:
It appears that Middleboro will be the site of the Wampanoag's casino. The Cape Cod Times is reporting that the tribe made a deal with the town for $7 million. The state has to approve the casino as well, but the Wampanoags apparently have a backup plan if that approval doesn't come through.
A billion for biotech:
Jay Fitz writes about the billion dollars headed from the state to the biotech industry. He notes that there are 35,000 workers in the biotech industry and 232,000 in the hospitality industry.
So when should the hotels expect thier $6 billion?
Occam's chain-saw:
David DeWolf's op-ed piece argues that we should give creationism and evolution equal time in high school science class.
Stop! Creationists believe that the earth is 6000 years old and that the Stone Age lasted about a hundred years! Dinosaurs and man coexisted! And that's just for starters. Light reaching us now from stars billions of miles away? How can that be if the universe is only a few thousand years old? Apparently the starlight was created in transit. Absurd. Even this guy from 'Rapture-Ready' can't justify this nonsense.
I could go on and on, but I won't, other than to say that there's a lot of real science that completely invalidates the ridiculous holdings of creationism.
Super service:
In the old days (like last week) workers had to physically go out and change the numbers on the sign when the price of gas went up. Did laziness help to keep prices down? I doubt it.
In any case, the new electronic signs make it easier to change the posted price but it also makes customers suspicious to see the price of gas change like a stock ticker. Maybe we should just hard-wire the signs to OPEC.
June 9, 2007
News Room
I'm just testing this news service with this Mossberg video clip.
Wild Oats:
Is the government really looking out for the interests of the organic food demographic? Are they genuinely concerned about keeping the price of goat milk chevre down so that average people can afford it?
Daniel Gross suspects that that's not what's driving the FTC in its blocking of a merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats. I suspect that he's on to something. (Link via Dan Kennedy)
iPhone home:
I'm certainly interested in the iPhone, which goes on sale June 29th. The smart money says, wait for the second generation, especially in this case where the device is being rushed to market. But it will be hard to wait if the first batch isn't a complete disaster. Apple is counting on both; the product not being a disaster and the inability of early adopters to resist.
What could go wrong? Plenty, says Seth Porges. Poor battery performance, cracked screens, etc. And then there's the hidden costs of service plans. That said, analysts from Piper Jaffray take a longer view and predict a huge success with 45 million iPhones sold by 2009 when, as with the iPod, prices drop to levels that entice average folks.
Time will tell.
Under development:
A completely new South Boston seaport neighborhood, homes, schools, theaters, restaurants, office space, parks. And it will look something like this.
Not buying it? You're not alone. The Mayor has his doubts and Steve Bailey is convinced that the area is cursed.
June 8, 2007
Tomato, onions, pickles and hots:
I agree with Jay on the cruller issue. And on triple decker vs three decker - either/or will do. But grinder?
Around here it's a sub or a spukie. Isn't a grinder something from a chain with shredded lettuce? Maybe not, but I don't remember the term growing up in Boston. To me, a grinder seemed to be the sandwich equivalent of Greek pizza -inauthentic.
The author of this page devoted way too much time and effort to a scientific study of how sandwiches get named in different regions (scroll down, it gets better.) It's unintentionally hilarious, but here's the useful part:
The submarine is a sandwich on a long roll, split in half. In its basic form it is filled with cold a variety of cold cuts, cheese, shredded lettuce, peppers, onions, salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. In addition to the general term submarine or sub, local terms in current use are grinder (New England outside of Boston), wedge (Westchester County), hero (New York City), torpedo or torp (Albany and Troy), hoagie (Philadelphia), zeppelin or zep (Norristown, PA), poor boy (New Orleans). ...
Alas, nothing on spukies. Here's more on regional variations of the submarine. And then, in a league of its own, there's the Horseshoe, not found much outside of Springfield Illinois -for good reason, I suspect.
UPDATE: Wikipedia has its own Supkie page and even more controversy on subs.
"A small town will usually be the host of 2 or 3 sub shops.[citation needed] Larger cities have 2 or 4 sub shops per neighborhood.[citation needed]"
Sounds definitive to me.
It's electric:
A team at MIT has figured out how to light a light-bulb, wirelessly, from across the room. Sounds like a big deal, but really, it's old news.
Straight into Compton:
The LA Times Homicide Blog and the Real Estate Blog come together in this comment on the latter:
I was just reading the homicide blog, and there was a mention that the homes on the Compton street where Quanisha Pitts was killed sell in the half-million dollar range.
And according to the blog post above, the median American home price is $219,000.
Parts of Compton (parts where people get shot) selling for more than DOUBLE the price of the median American home, and some people wonder if L.A. home prices are a bubble.
Crazy.
The art of fame:
Paris Hilton as the Mona Lisa? Eugene Robinson thinks so. I thought that smirk looked a little familiar.
Photos are from my brush with greatness earlier this year.
June 7, 2007
Murder on Nantucket:
The Globe raised questions as to whether an impartial pool of jurors could be found for the Nantucket murder trial of Thomas Toolan, accused of killing Elizabeth Lochtefeld. The Inquirer and Mirror reports that this morning a jury was, in fact, selected and that the defense motion to move the trial off island was denied. Oh, and the jurors will be allowed to drink water. Evian, presumably.
Technical difficulties:
Unable to post for a while, this morning. Things seem to be working now.
Skin deep:
This breakthrough in stem cell research is good, and potentially momentous, news. But the timing couldn't be worse with the House is set to vote today on loosening current restrictions on stem cell research. From today's Washington Post:
Acutely aware that their new work could undermine that key political goal, the scientists cautioned that their success with mouse cells does not guarantee quick success with human cells. They called for Congress to pass the bill, which would give federally funded researchers access to embryos slated for destruction at fertility clinics.
In the long term, today's ethical concerns may be made moot, but we're not there yet and moving forward on embryonic stem cell research makes the most sense.
Pardon:
Loyalty when it comes to Rumsfeld and Gonzales, none when it comes to Libby. A Times analysis tries to make sense, political and otherwise, of why Bush does what he does. Or doesn't do.
June 6, 2007
Moving on:
The charges were outrageous, the allegations public.
June 5, 2007
City of Angels:
In addition to its Homicide Blog and Phil Spector Trial blog, the LA Times now has a Road Rage blog.
Too much money or not enough time:
In California, Whole Foods is offering spa treatment in its stores, part of a trend towards luxury services in everyday environments. This could be a way to get people out of the Dunkin Donuts drive through. Offer them a foot massage in the store, while they wait in line.
Throwing out the old rules:
On most issues I tend, like most people, to be knee-jerk, anti-big utility, especially when it comes to cable TV. But even I can't get excited about Verizon's wanting to change the rules for cable TV approval from a local process to a state process.
Some argue that changing the rules will remove the obligation for cable providers to produce local access shows. (Like this?) Again, not excited.
The local access mandate was based on a situation where the cable company had a local monopoly and it was designed to compensate the community for the lack of competitive pressure to control prices. But with competition in the local market, cable TV becomes just another business and, as such, shouldn't have to do more than other local businesses when it comes to community investment. (And and as an added bonus, with the Verizon build-out, the consumer gets fiber to the home. That in itself is an investment in the community.)
So what would you rather have, lower prices, higher quality and more selection or Quincy and Reno.
June 4, 2007
Outsourcing:
The Cape is having trouble getting workers this year. It used to be college kids that worked the bars, restaurants and inns on the cape and islands. Now it's Jamaicans, Eastern Europeans, Brazilians, etc. - flown in from across the globe to work for the season. Sounds like an economy out of balance.
Apparently the Cape and Saudi Arabia have more in common than dunes.
Half a blog:
I like Maura Welsh's Business Intelligence column. It's very blog-like, with interesting little blurbs that whet your appetite for more, like this one, or this.
Wait, no links? As the above paragraph illustrates, blog-style writing doesn't really work without links, especially out-links. Welsh's lead blurb is about a survey of IT people who snoop into company files. Here it is:
PC Pro
A new survey finds that one-third of information technology staffers ‘‘take advantage of their position to look through private files, wage data, personal e-mails, and HR details.’’ They claim it’s simply human nature. They ask: ‘‘Why does it surprise you that so many of us snoop around your files; wouldn’t you if you had secret access to anything you can get your hands on?’’
My continuing gripe is that in the absence of links, at least give us some information, you know, like about the survey (which was conducted by Newton based company Cyber Ark and invloved more than 200 IT professionals.) The PC Pro reference should take you here.
But I'd much rather link to Welch's blurb linking to the survey, at least with a "via". Unfortunately there are no perma-links either.
Enemy No 1:
Bloomberg, if he does decide to run for president, will have a tough time with the gun issue. Already he's hated by gun rights groups. So he must be doing something right.
June 2, 2007
The summer of 67:
Sgt. Pepper was released 40 years ago. That psychedelic summer is long gone but the money keeps pouring in. Soon the album will be released for download on iTunes. So what better place to read about what it all meant, than the Wall Street Journal.
And here's an interesting article on the business behind The Beatles.
Sicko:
Here's a quick story about a certain HMO, I won't say which one, but it's located near the Braintree T station. Last weekend I developed a severe fever. I waited a couple of days, assuming it was a bug. It didn't go away and I noticed a red swelling on my shin. So by Tuesday I decided to drop in to see my primary care physician at the HMO.
She described what I had as a skin rash and sent me off with prescriptions for ointment and antibiotics for the fever which, by her comments, didn't seem to be connected to the rash.
So I went to work where a co-worker noted that, what I had seemed a lot like something someone he knew had had recently. In that case, the person was diagnosed with cellulitis and was rushed to the hospital. He was told that it was a progressive and potentially deadly condition.
Still, I gave my doctor the benefit of the doubt. But after some prodding I called and asked if she had ruled cellulitis out. No, I was told by an office person, that was the diagnosis on the chart.
OK, so maybe my cellulitis wasn't the bad kind. On the way home from work, after describing the symptoms over the phone, I reluctantly stopped by Mass General where a family member works. One look by a very experienced doctor and I was immediately admitted for three days of heavy duty intravenous antibiotics. It was two days before the fever broke and the infection retreated.
So why didn't the HMO doctor take my condition seriously or refer me to an emergency room? I don't know. But here's what it says at the Mayo Clinic web site under Cellulitis, a reference found through Google:
When to seek medical advice
If you have a rash that's red, swollen, tender and warm — and it's expanding — try to see your doctor the same day. If a fever or pain accompanies the rash, or the rash is changing rapidly, seek emergency care. It's important to identify and treat cellulitis early because the condition can cause a serious infection by spreading rapidly throughout your body.
Was it a 'bottom-line' decision to send me home with all of the above? I hope not. Best case, it was inexperience or incompetence by the HMO doctor, and that's not a very good best case.
But, all's well that ends well. And I eventually I was lucky enough at MGH to be treated by some of the best doctors in the world and the most competent and compassionate nurses in the universe.